The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents: Guiding Your Children to Success and Fulfillment

Abigail Flesch Connors

101 Rhythm Instrument Activities: For Young Children

The perfect book to introduce rhythm instruments to young children! Children make the sound of the ocean waves using shakers, pretend to be a train using sand blocks, create a rainstorm with rhythm sticks, and perform circus tricks with jingle bells. Plus, they learn to play the instruments along with their favorite songs. 101 Rhythm Instrument Activities is perfect for parents, early childhood teachers, and music teachers who work with toddlers through age 6.

Jennifer Graf Groneberg

Road Map to Holland: How I Found My Way Through My Son's First Two Years with Down Symdrome

An exceptional memoir that provides emotional insight and practical advice. It's like planning a trip to Italy, only to get off the plane and discover you're actually in Holland. You need a new road map, and fast... When Jennifer Groneberg and her husband learned they'd be having twin boys, their main concern was whether they'd need an addition on their house. Then, five days after Avery and Bennett were born, Avery was diagnosed with Down syndrome. Here, Jennifer shares the story of what followed. She dealt with doctors-some who helped, and some who were disrespectful or even dangerous. She saw some relationships in her life grow stronger, while severing ties with people who proved unsupportive. And she continues to struggle to find balance in the hardships and joys of raising a child with special needs. This book is a resource, a companion for parents, and above all, a story of the love between a mother and her son-as she learns that Avery is exactly the child she never knew she wanted.

Michael Thompson

The Pressured Child: Freeing Our Kids from Performance Overdrive and Helping Them Find Success in School and Life

The push for students to excel at school and get into the best colleges has never been more intense. In this invaluable new book, the bestselling co-author of Raising Cain addresses America's performance-driven obsession with the accomplishments of its kids-and provides a deeply humane response."How was school?" These three words contain a world of desire on the part of parents to know what their children are learning and experiencing in school each day. Children may not divulge much, but psychologist Michael Thompson suggests that the answers are there if we know how to read the clues and-equally important-if we remember our own school days.School, Thompson reminds us, occupies more waking hours than kids spend at home; and school is full not just of studies but of human emotion-excitement, fear, envy, love, anger, sexuality, boredom, competitiveness. Through richly detailed interviews, case histories, and student e-mail journals, including those of his own children, Thompson illuminates the deeper psychological journey that school demands, a journey that all children must take in order to grow and develop, whether they are academic aces or borderline dropouts. Most of us remember ...